


Christmas Traditions

by greygerbil



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 11:19:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8798878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greygerbil/pseuds/greygerbil
Summary: Genji has been eager to spend some alone time with Zenyatta on Christmas to indulge in all the romantic aspects of Japanese Christmas Eve.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Genyatta Week 2016, prompt "Christmas/Winter Holidays".

“It’s a shame Bastion and Winston couldn’t come,” Angela said, carefully blowing on the hot crêpe she was balancing on a thin cardboard rectangle with one hand. It was not a long walk from the Christmas market back to the small Overwatch station they had reactivated; and without the most noticeable members, even their colourful group was lost among the general charming oddities of inhabitants that every sprawling metropolis like Berlin produced and drew in. Reinhardt, who had had the idea for the trip, led the charge with Ana, who was wearing the hood of her jacket drawn deeply into her face at all times. Angela was walking with Lena and Jesse, Zenyatta and Genji a few steps behind them, while Mei and Torbjörn were bringing up the rear, slowing down ever more as they discussed the intricacies of Mei’s weather robot.

“And that Jack refuses to,” Ana added, holding up her bags of _lebkuchen_ and fudge. “But at least we can bring them this. And Zenyatta, didn’t you find something for Bastion as well?”

She turned to look back at them.

“Yes. You can give this to him from us.”

Reaching into the pocket of his coat, Zenyatta carefully pulled out a white paper bag, which he handed on to Ana. She reached inside and found a delicate glass figurine of a small bird. Genji glanced briefly at it, then back at Zenyatta, unable to take his eyes off of him for long. He was quite enamoured with Zenyatta’s winter outfit, which consisted of a thick, long, brown mantle that covered him from the holes cut into his faceplate as eyes to his thick ankles as he walked barefoot through the snow so he would not draw attention with his floating. Genji himself had also protected his sensors against the cold with a jacket, boots and trousers that Jesse had lent him.

“Usually I would think a unit like him would break this, but I have seen Bastion with his real bird,” Ana said with a smile, putting the figurine back in its bag.

“For a machine built for war, he is exceptionally careful,” Zenyatta agreed. “Perhaps it is because he knows what destruction he can cause if he doesn’t watch himself. Many could profit from being so prudent.”

“Hey, Zenyatta,” Lena asked, zipping backwards to join them just as Genji had opened his mouth. “I always wondered, do the Shambali celebrate Christmas?”

“No specifically, but we do favour it. I see no way in which Christmas conflicts with the Shambali believes. I find this general esteem of peace and goodwill in the season quite enjoyable!”

“This mulled wine isn’t too bad, either,” Jesse added, lifting the plastic cup he was carrying.

“Do you have the key card?” Ana asked, turning around to Angela, who was currently trying to keep the molten chocolate cream that filled her crêpe from dripping all over the front of her white coat.

“Yes, of course.”

Joining Ana and Reinhardt in the front, she wiped her fingers clean with a tissue and took out her card. Ana unlocked the front door to the old, unassuming apartment building with a regular key. Downstairs, she would be able to open the steel door to what looked like an old boiler room, then use the key card, the fingerprint scanner (for human agents only, omnics had their inner registration code checked) and the numerical code. The old Berlin Overwatch base was thankfully still mostly functional and managed to stay hidden in the guise of being in a building only housing squatters, since it was ostensibly in danger of collapse.

“I think I will stay outside a little longer,” Zenyatta said. “I want to see the lights of the market from the roof.”

Seeing his chance, Genji stepped towards his master. “I will come with you, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course.”

“Don’t freeze up there, lovebirds,” Jesse teased.

“No jealousy,” Genji said easily over his shoulder as he put his hand on Zenyatta’s back, gently urging him towards the stairs.

After a whole week of being kept apart by recon missions, and the happy chaos of the Christmas market visit to follow, the silent company as they ascended the stairs was much welcome. Genji followed Zenyatta outside onto a flat roof with a waist-high stone balustrade that overlooked the city from six flights up. Down there, the Christmas market filled the streets like a golden river, a myriad of lights and holograms illuminating many stalls and takeaways. 

“How did you like it?” Zenyatta asked.

“It was fun,” Genji said. “Although not quite like we celebrate Christmas Eve in Japan.”

“What is it like where you come from?”

“It’s more about couples than families or friends, although we do share it with them as well. I enjoyed myself, but I wished I had had you for myself.”

“You should have told me,” Zenyatta said. “Then I could have thought of something to honour the occasion.”

“That’s not necessary. We are here now, aren’t we?”

And, for how much he liked most of his colleagues, Genji was at his most content putting his arm around Zenyatta’s waist and watching the streets below with him alone, listening to the sound of the crowd chattering and Christmas songs playing from a dozen directions, creating a joyous chaos of sound that reached them only as background noise up here.

Genji let the atmosphere wash over him for a moment, then drew Zenyatta closer to himself and bumped their foreheads together.

“You look nice in that coat,” Genji said, looking down at Zenyatta. “It suits you.”

“Really? Thank you, it was left over in the Overwatch base.”

“Yes, although... here, let me try something.”

Christmas was about couples, and Genji had always been a little bit of a scoundrel, although he liked to think that with Zenyatta, that aspect of his personality had been tempered to something the robot usually found charming. With what seemed like focused curiosity, Genji began unbuttoning Zenyatta’s coat, and his teacher allowed him. Then, Genji pushed his hand into the warmth that Zenyatta’s machinery had created being bundled up in the thick fabric, tugging him closer just as he thrust his fingers into the cables that ran along the base of his spine.

Zenyatta gasped in surprise and Genji chuckled, twisting his fingers gently between them and using just enough strength to pull that Zenyatta’s sensors would send hundreds of miniscule impulses up to his electronic brain. It had taken a while, but by this point he understood his master’s body perfectly, knew how to play it like a delicate instrument, and Zenyatta held on to Genji’s shoulders to steady himself.

“We’re out in the open, Genji,” he admonished, his voice shaken by pleasure.

“On a roof,” Genji said with a laugh. “And besides, we’re not doing anything untoward, are we?”

As if to underline the point, he put his other arm around Zenyatta’s shoulders, his thumb teasing behind the pistons at his neck and pushing between two parts of metal to where he knew another sensor to be hidden that was as sensitive to being rubbed with the flat of his finger as an exposed node of nerves.

“You’re incorrigible – we could have gone to our room,” Zenyatta said, clinging to him.

“I like the view,” Genji teased, leaning their heads together and allowing a small charge of electricity to omit from his body. It was just a tickle, but surging into Zenyatta’s system, which was already trying to process all the input Genji caused at sensors that weren’t usually exposed to contact, it had Zenyatta shuddering.

The door of the small stone hut which led to the staircase opened.

“Hey guys,” Lena said, “sorry to bother you, but Jack wants to go into lockdown for the night. You coming downstairs?”

“We’ll be right there,” Genji said calmly, knowing that all that Lena saw was that Genji was embracing his boyfriend. Zenyatta, probably well aware that his voice might give away more, didn’t say anything.

“Thanks, you two. See you in a bit!” And she was down the stairs again, the sound of her rapid footsteps on stone receeding. Genji gave the sensor on Zenyatta’s neck a last loving flick of his thumb before he let go and pulled the halves of his coat together.

“I take it your version of Christmas was not about peace on earth?” Zenyatta asked, unable to keep a chuckle out of his voice.

“Oh, you know all about my youth. But now it is. After all, we will spend it together, and I’m always at peace with you,” Genji answered easily.

-

They did finish what they had started in the privacy of their own room. Afterwards, Zenyatta settled in next to Genji, wanting to keep him in his arms, but Genji lifted his finger and wound himself out of the embrace.

“They give presents on Christmas Eve in Germany, don’t they? We honoured my traditions, let’s keep to the local ones, too.”

“I told you that you don’t have to get me anything.”

“I figured out something you could use.”

From under the bed, Genji pulled a cardboard box and handed it to Zenyatta. The omnic opened it carefully. Inside were two very soft, shapeless, malleable boots lined with wool, the biggest size Genji had been able to find online. Though omnics often had sensors that registered the cold, most companies were not ready to produce appropriate clothing for them, so getting them any could be tricky.

“I thought that if you walk more often now, you might want something to protect your feet. It’s a good idea in the city even when its warm, especially since you have cables on your feet. They could always snag.”

Zenyatta lifted the boots out of the box.

“Thank you,” he said warmly, “that is very thoughtful of you.”

Setting the boots down on his lap, he pulled Genji in. He couldn’t kiss him, of course, but he pressed his faceplate against what remained of Genji’s lips, an approximation Genji had always found heart-breaking in just the right way.

“I have something for you, too.”

Letting him go, Zenyatta floated over to his locker and opened it. Out of its depths, he brought something that Genji recognised as a Shambali mala. However, there were only nine wooden pearls attached to it which were unusually big for a chain of prayer beads. When Genji took them and turned them between his fingertips he also noticed that they were carved with the same pattern as Zenyatta’s orbs.

“I wanted something to connect us,” Zenyatta said. “Although it took me a while to get them to resemble mine. My fingers were not made for work as precise as this. At least I can’t nick myself with the knife,” he added, bemused.

“It’s beautiful,” Genji said with a smile. He could see a few lines that went a bit askew, but they only called to his mind the image of Zenyatta sitting with a blade in hand, diligently working on Genji’s gift. “Thank you, Zenyatta. This is such a personal present that now I feel stupid about the boots.”

“Not at all. You got them because you cared for my comfort and safety,” Zenyatta said, drawing Genji close to him again. “I like them.”

When Genji fell asleep, Zenyatta was lying next to him, his hand cradling Genji’s head and idly caressing him. Genji was holding the prayer beads tightly, already knowing that he would do so every night that he was separated from Zenyatta from now on.


End file.
